1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to building materials, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an insulated concrete form system for constructing the walls of a structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
One construction building material is known as an insulated concrete form (ICF). Typically, an ICF is constructed from expanded polystyrene and has a rectangular shape. ICFs are popular due to their low cost and low flammability as compared to other plastic building materials.
During construction, two ICFs are positioned end-to-end and connected. Subsequent ICFs are connected to an unconnected end of a connected ICF to form a row. After the first row is created, subsequent ICFs are connected and positioned on top of the first row to form a second row. Subsequent rows of ICFs are added until the ICFs extend to the desired height of a wall. Once the wall is established, concrete is poured to reinforce the ICFs.
One such ICF is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,969 issued Jan. 23, 1990, to Horobin. Horobin discloses a polystyrene building block that has rails on a top side and grooves on a bottom side for facilitating the stacking of a plurality of blocks. The blocks also have grooves for facilitating the cutting of the block's body into smaller block components. The blocks and/or components are employed to form building wall structures.
Another building block design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,331 issued Dec. 20, 1966, to Sams. Sams discloses a polymeric-material block having T-shaped slots at opposing ends. A substantially I-shaped key inserts into adjacent slots to fasten a plurality of blocks together.
These building block designs suffer several disadvantages. Horobin patent requires additional stabilizing after the ICFs are positioned for reinforcement with concrete. When reinforcing these walls, the walls must withstand the weight of the concrete. Individual rows of ICFs may shift or topple during concrete reinforcement. As a result, the erected ICFs must be substantially braced prior to the concrete pour.
The Sams building block could not be manufactured from expanded polystyrene because the cored passage that receives concrete is too small to properly stabilize an ICF wall with concrete. In addition, this building block design lacks the versatility for constructing a building. Buildings often contain oddly shaped and angled walls. The Sams building block does not provide a mechanism for easily reshaping the block to meet the design specifications of the building.
Accordingly, an ICF system that forms a unitary, stabilized wall reenforceable with concrete without substantial bracing and is easily modifiable to construct various sizes and shapes of building walls will improve over conventional ICF systems.